The present invention relates to an integrated electronic method and system for tracking the carcass of a slaughtered animal throughout its movement--usually by trolley--through a processing line, by correlating a specific trolley to a specific carcass of a slaughtered animal, such that a particular animal history can provide both quality assurance source verification and performance tracking.
There is a need, for both economic and quality assurance reasons, for an efficient and cost-effective method for identifying and tracking livestock, and for the monitoring of the processing of those livestock. Throughout the livestock production and processing cycle, there is a need for more detailed information so that ranchers, stockmen, feedlots, packers, distributors and retailers can make informed decisions about factors and variables such as genetics, herd management, purchasing, feed strategies, and ship dates. Producers who improve their animal performance can realize greater returns with performance-based compensation when accurate information about the history and the value of each animal is easily available.
There is also a growing concern about quality assurance in the livestock processing cycle; there is an opportunity for producers and processors who can establish that quality assurance to improve their compensation. Effective quality assurance programs such as HACCP, or Hazards Analysis and Critical Control Points, programs require accurate and timely information about the history of each animal.
The Beef Industry
The beef industry is a good example of the livestock industry. Traditionally, there are four segments to the U.S. beef industry: the cow/calf producer, the stockman, the feedlot, and the packer/slaughter facility.
The slaughter facility phase is most important for the present invention. An object of the present invention is to track the animal throughout this phase of the cycle. The slaughter facility or packer typically slaughters the animal and then chills, ages and cuts the carcass into the various cuts of meat and packs those cuts for shipment to distributors and retailers. The packer also provides grade and yield ratings for the carcass. Important quality factors include the live animal weight, the carcass weight, a chilled weight; and the yield, grade, and quality of the carcass and carcass defects. The information collected by the packer is important to all of the upstream participants, such as producers, stockmen and feedlots, because it allows them to adjust their management practices based on the actual quality and economic result for each animal. The upstream data, such as genetic factors, and the environmental factors, such as health and drug treatments, nutrition, and growth history, is important to the packer because it permits the packer to select animals that produce the results desired by his customers.
Typically, each of the four segments of the livestock production and processing cycle, i.e., the cow/calf producer, the stockman, the feedlot, and the packer/slaughter facility, have attempted to optimize their own operations, and there has been relatively little emphasis on cooperative optimization efforts. There is a growing recognition across these industry segments, however, that for both quality assurance reasons and for the improvement of the industry in general, it is desirable to attempt improved data collection and data management. An object of the present invention is to provide that improved data collection and data management.
Variability and Quality Control
There is variability in individual animal production efficiency and in individual carcass quality characteristics such as weight, frame size, muscling, fat content, marbling, and feed efficiency. This variation is due to a combination of genetic factors and environmental factors such as health and drug treatments, nutrition, and growth history. Many of the genetic and environmental factors can be controlled or managed to improve both quality and economic return on investment if accurate historical information were available throughout the production cycle.
The livestock industry has recognized that certain livestock species and breeds outperform other species during production and processing. The prior art has used data collection systems and statistical analysis of data related to livestock breeds in order to identify higher performance breeds. There is a need to extend this data collection so that individual producers can make informed decisions about individual breeding animals in order to further improve their herds.